Qualities Business Investors Look For: No. 4 🕵️ (Profit Pledged)

Part 4 in a series of videos on what what Brian looks for in companies.

Transcription

Qualities business investors look for, number 4.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we’re going to be talking about the number four on the list of however many qualities that a business investor looks for. So if you’re I’m talking about business investors that are either looking to purchase a business or are looking to invest expertise and capital into a business. That’s what we’re discussing here.

So let’s delve a little deeper into another one of these topics, we covered three up until now, the fourth one is, is also extremely simple, at first glance and the problem with it is that so few businesses actually have it as a major piece of their business.

It can be a stumbling block to growth, one thing I found is that businesses will usually hit the million-dollar mark and have a tough time getting past that ceiling if they can’t figure out how to get past number four, number four is being PROFIT PLEDGED.

I know this is going to this is gonna really irritate a whole lot of people out there, because it’s really not cool to talk about profit, and to focus on the numbers and all that type of thing that’s just greedy, and selfish and this and that.

And I agree, if that was all your about your business isn’t going to last long, you’re going to have a tough time gaining attention, because you’re just you’re too concerned over numbers and all that.

The problem is, is when it does not exist in your business because it is the main thing. You shouldn’t be thinking all day about how you consume food, and then the food gets distributed, the nutrients get distributed through your blood.

Most of you don’t need to be thinking about whether you have enough blood in your system, just the right amount so that you don’t have low blood pressure, and you don’t have high blood pressure. That blood is taking everything where it needs to go, most of us don’t need to worry about that. But without it, you’re dead.

There’s this little thing in business, that if there was no one focused on it, you’re dead in the water and that concept is profit. Profit is the simplest thing in the world. But it’s if you get too over-focused and outside of the realm of where the profit lies, then you will you’ll lose momentum in your business in trying to fix it later on.

So that here’s the deal. This is what I mean by profit, it’s actually really simple. You have something left over, after you spend everything that you made, okay if you’ve got a business that’s growing, you’ve got money coming in. Right?

At some point, you’re going to have money coming in. Now maybe if you’re at the very beginning, you’re putting a whole lot more out than you have coming in, I get that. But you should have enough predictable amount coming in, that you’ll know next month, we’re going to pull in at least about this much.

In general, we’re going to have at least this much coming in and you know that you have at least this much going out. Now you may know that you already have more coming out than in, but then you also know that the next month you’re going to have some more coming back in.

So even if you’re running at a deficit, you should know that number. And the focus should be to stop running at a deficit eventually, to eventually have money left over.

After it’s all been spent, that you have more coming in, then you have coming out going out. That’s profit. That’s all there is to it. There’s not much more than that.

It’s three numbers you need to know it expenses and income verse and what’s left after you mix those two together, the plus and the minus what’s left. That’s profit.

This isn’t rocket science. You don’t need a bookkeeper to do it. Although eventually, you do need someone to help come up with those numbers. But those numbers are not difficult. This is the building block of every business and I have gone into businesses that had all the best marks across the board. In most cases.

You always see things you could tune up you always see things that could be added to and built on that’s a given

But they could not figure out profit, they did not know profit. It was not the focus.

I’m not saying it should be the only focus or the main focus even. But it should be a focus, it should be something that you look back to. And if someone can’t give you that number, or give you an idea of when you’re going to reach a certain amount of profit, that is a broken business, and it needs to be fixed.

You need to be profit pledged, eventually. Eventually, you need to focus on that. Because that is how your business grows. That’s how it can do more of the things that you want it to do. If you’re out to change the world or help starving children. I’m not being facetious. I mean, whatever you’re all about, you’re going to do that with profit, and you’re not gonna be able to do it.

Without profit, at some point profit needs to come in there. And it can be said to be a dirty word. But all it means is you have something left over after you’ve spent everything and that you can use that then to build on. That’s what it’s all about.

I’m not saying you got something you can keep in your pockets. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying you got something to build with the business has something to build with.

Hopefully, that makes sense to, you and I are hoping this is not your issue. If it is we need to talk deeper about it. If you can see that you have not been focused enough on profit. I would love to be able to talk with you. I’m not putting you down. I’m letting you know if you’re going to want partners and team members that know what they’re doing.

They’re going to expect you to have some sense of being profit pledged in your business. So hopefully that makes sense.

We’ll be back tomorrow and we’re going to talk about number five. Yes, there is a number five of the qualities that business investors look for. We’ll be back then in the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.